A School for Children with Rights: The significance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for modern education policy

Thomas Hammarberg

Innocenti Lectures

Abstract: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child affirms that every child has a right to education. The purpose of education is to enable the child to develop to his or her fullest possible potential and to learn respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The general principles of the Convention which are relevant to education cover non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the child’s right to life, survival and development, and the child’s right to express opinions. These principles can serve as a useful instrument in discussions on how to reform schools. This paper analyses, in the light of the Convention, eight areas for progressive reform: universal access, equal opportunities, the appropriate content of education, cultural roots and global values, new methods of learning, mutual respect, pupil participation, and the role of teachers, parents and the community. It also examines the problems both of implementing and of paying for such reform. The author concludes that the Convention constitutes a useful agenda for creatng a school which is child friendly and which provides the most effective learning.

Keywords: convention on the rights of the child; education; educational policy; educational reforms; implementation of the crc; right to education; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 K33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucf:innlec:innlec98/1

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://www.unicef-i ... ions-convention.html
The price is All UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti publications can be downloaded from our website free of charge. Printed copies of some titles can also be ordered from the United Nations Publications website https://shop.un.org/search/unicef/node/29892.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Innocenti Lectures
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Patrizia Faustini ().